


Seasons Change

by SherbetGoldWinter



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Character Study, Conflict, Drama, Enemies to Friends, Hope’s Peak AU, Kinda, Multi, These two are impossible
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:55:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22585216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherbetGoldWinter/pseuds/SherbetGoldWinter
Summary: It was a known fact in Class 76 that Harukawa hated Ouma, and to be fair, most people did. He was annoying, rude, and lied like he breathed. However, the Ultimate Child Caregivers hate for him was so strong it was almost palpable, and absolutely no one could figure out what had caused such conflict between the two. Even both Ultimate Detective’s wouldn’t touch that mystery with a 10ft pole, it wasn’t worth the stress nor the reward nor the glares from the girl in red or the lies from the boy in white.And so, it stayed as a mystery.
Relationships: Chabashira Tenko/Yumeno Himiko, Harukawa Maki & Oma Kokichi, Harukawa Maki & Saihara Shuichi, Harukawa Maki/Momota Kaito, Momota Kaito & Saihara Shuichi, Oma Kokichi & Saihara Shuichi, Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 11
Kudos: 78





	Seasons Change

It was a known fact in Class 76 that Harukawa hated Ouma, and to be fair, most people did. He was annoying, rude, and lied like he breathed. However, the Ultimate Child Caregivers hate for him was so strong it was almost palpable, and absolutely no one could figure out what had caused such conflict between the two. Even both Ultimate Detective’s wouldn’t touch that mystery with a 10ft pole, it wasn’t worth the stress nor the reward nor the glares from the girl in red or the lies from the boy in white.

And so, it stayed as a mystery.

Harukawa tried to stay away - she always did - but found herself involuntarily friends with Momota, Akamatsu, and Saihara. Of course, Ouma wasn’t going to be left out like that. He riled Momota up, clung off Saihara’s back and seemed to make it his god-given mission to annoy Akamatsu. What was worse was that Harukawa was the one that ended up feeling the most annoyed in the end and either left on her own accord or glared at him until he left on his own. Although, that probably wasn't because he felt intimidated.

When they did end up interacting, it wasn’t pleasant. Usually it would result in insults being flung by Ouma with a smile and terrifying glares being sent by Harukawa. Sometimes it would get physical, never on Ouma’s end though. The worse that would happen would be for Harukawa to shove him aside or grab him by his scarf and luckily things wouldn’t divulge in a bloodbath.

Saihara knew these things - everyone did - which was why he couldn’t understand what Akamatsu was hoping to achieve. The set up was a bit strange, a little comical, her standing in front of the blackboard with him sitting at the front desk peering up. He wondered how studying had turned into whatever this was.

“Alright, so I have an excellent plan - I’ve really thought this through - so that Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun can be friends. Now, I haven’t figured out why they’re fighting, but that’ll come later. Friendship comes first.” She tapped the board with the metre stick she found. On it were crude drawings of Ouma, Harukawa, Momota and himself. “It’s a simple solution really. You and Momota-kun are arguably the closest to both of them. Do you know what that means? If the four of you start hanging out together, Harukawa-san will have no choice but to bond with Ouma-kun and become closer with him! You could invite him to-“

“Akamatsu-san,” he interrupted, “no offence but it sounds like you’re trying to make them friends by forcing them to be near each other. I don’t think that’s how friendship works.”

“What?! That’s what worked with Harukawa-san and me. You guys too! We kept hanging out with her and she couldn’t resist being our friend because of how much time we had to bond.”

He winced. “That... was different. We didn’t hate Harukawa-san and she didn’t hate us. Ouma-kun and Harukawa-san... I don’t know what happened, but I really think that they might never get along.”

“You never know until you try, Saihara-kun.”

“Haven’t we tried though?” He countered. “They’ve been together before and it never turned out well, did it?”

She pouted and crossed her arms. “We can’t just give up though.”

“Why?”

Akamatsu looked incredulous. “Why? Because we should all be friends!”

Saihara didn’t exactly like disagreeing with people or challenging them on their ideas or beliefs, but Akamatsu was his best friend - Momota too - and sometimes... she could be a little overzealous. He knew that, and he knew that maybe someone had to step in and tell her when she was going too far, trying to force something that wouldn’t stick. Determination was all well and good, but not when it results in a painful and pointless endeavour, and so he would have to be the person to tell her to step back.

“Do we all - really have to?”

“Yes,” she insisted. “Do you remember what we were all like at the start of the year? Barely anyone talked to each other and we all went off either in small groups or alone! Remember how Chabashira-san and Yonaga-san fought? Well they’re really good friends now thanks to the bonds we’ve created throughout the year. Harukawa-san and Hoshi-kun too. They stayed away from us and would go off on their own all the time even though they looked so sad to be alone, but they've opened up a lot and we've created an irreplaceable friendship. This’ll be good for Harukawa-san and Ouma-kun.”

Akamatsu’s point was made and now it was left for Saihara to counter it. Part of him wished he was still wearing his hat so he could dramatically adjust the bill and looked up with determination blazing in his eyes like some anime protagonist. Then again, that was a very small part of him.

“I don’t like how often they fight. It seems to have just gotten worse and worse throughout the year, but, we can’t force them to be friends. Some people just aren’t compatible with each other. It’s also a little ridiculous to expect everyone in a class to be friendly with each other.”

“But Nanami-san’s class-“

“Soda-kun and Tanaka-kun don’t get along. Neither do Tsumiki-san and Saionji-san and- Please tell me you’re not doing this to try and upstage the other class.”

“Noo, _noo_! I genuinely want everyone to be friends-“

“I-I know you do, but we can’t force something that won’t happen.”

Once again, she pouted, except this time it was slightly more forceful. “Ok, ok. I understand...”

She suddenly sighed, walked over and slumped down in the chair next to him looking hopelessly exhausted with her head rolled back and her eyes lazily focused on the ceiling.

“Ah... S-Sorry, Akamatsu-san.” He frowned.

“It’s fine... You’re probably right.” She paused. “I just really want everyone to get along. Maybe they don’t have to be friends, but this constant fighting and tension is too much. Even Momota-kun and Ouma-kun get on better. I know that took a while but still...”

He nodded sympathetically. He didn’t like it either, all the memories of the awkward atmosphere the two would create with their fights came crashing back down on him and even he felt the urge to slump down as well under the weight of it all.

“It might... it might work itself out,” he feebly suggested, and in response, Akamatsu rolled her head towards him and gave him a smile.

“Hopefully, or else I’ll smack them.”

He chuckled nervously. “Please don’t. Harukawa-san will hate that.”

“And Ouma-kun will sic his ten thousand _scary_ subordinates on me.”

They couldn’t help themselves and burst out laughing.

——

Despite the burning, the sweat and the red flush on his face, Saihara felt a little elated. Realising his progress made his chest feel a bit lighter and a surge of pride went through him. Thinking about how unfit he’d been at the start of the year was a little - no, a lot - embarrassing. He didn’t mind being beaten by Momota, but when he’d first seen Harukawa push out a hundred pushups like they were no problem, he’d felt a little pathetic.

Times had changed though and it was nice that the two acknowledged his improvement.

“I can’t wait till we kick the crap outta sports day!” Momota cheered, leaning back and rapidly gulping down water.

“Is it really something to get so excited over?” Harukawa said looking unbothered by the recent workout.

“Of course! We can show off how hard we’ve trained, beat the other classes and each take a trophy home.”

“There’s only one trophy though.”

Momota turned to Saihara. “What?”

“One trophy. It gets displayed in the case near the front of the school.”

“What? I really thought we'd get trophies!” Momota looked disappointed.

“Idiot,” Harukawa muttered, “there's medals you might get so calm down.”

“Really?” The astronaut in training perked right up. “Then I guess we’ll be taking those medals home, huh? Of course, a hero doesn’t go in it for the medals or trophies, but for the satisfaction of seeing his beloved fans that believed in him cheer and have hope!”

Saihara and Harukawa gave each other a look. “No one cares that much about sports day.”

“I do!” Momota insisted. “I’m sure Akamatsu and Gonta care. Shuichi! You care, right?”

“Uh...” he smiled sheepishly. “It’d be nice to win, I guess.”

“Exactly! Now I think our ace in the hole here in Gonta. That dude could pull a tree out of its roots if he wanted to.“

“He’s not an ‘ace in the hole’, everyone knows how strong he is.”

“Huh.” Momota put a hand to his chin before patting Saihara’s back - hard. “Then I guess Shuichi here will be our ace in the hole! I believe in you bro. You’ll surprise everyone with how strong you’ve gotten!”

“Really...” he said unconvincingly.

“Of course. Harumaki too.” Momota turned to face said girl who gave a slight, harmless glare at the nickname before averting her eyes.

“Not really.”

“Yes really! You’re incredibly strong and...” Momota trailed and Saihara wasn’t sure why. “Chabashira too!” He blurted. “She’s crazy strong. I bet if she joined our training sessions she’d kick all our asses.”

“She trains with Oogami-san, doesn’t she?” Saihara chimed in, a chill sweeping through him as he thought about the unbelievably muscular girl.

“She’ll have to be pitted against Gonta,” Momota stated, wisely as if he were a strategist involved in some complex scheme.

“You’re not even going to consider me?”

Saihara flinched at the new voice, as did Momota and Harukawa who turned with a vicious glare. Standing a bit away from them with a soda cradled in his hand - was Ouma. He regarded them all with a cheerful smile.

Momota recovered from the surprise quickly. “Nah. Look at you. You’re tiny, scrawny and weak. Bet you’d snap in a strong wind.”

Tears sprung at the corners of Ouma’s eyes. They should’ve been used to it really, he often ‘overreacted’ to the things they said, but it never failed to surprise Saihara at how easy the tears came or how _real_ his expressions looked. Something that was suppose to be predictable by now kept catching him off guard.

“That’s so cruel,” he sniffed, “you think Harumaki-chan is all cool and strong when she’s only a few centimetres taller than me?! She looks just as scrawny and weak as I do.”

 _Oh god_ , Saihara thought. Why, oh why, did Ouma have to take a jab at Harukawa? What was the need to poke and prod at her until her eyes bled crimson and her knuckles turned white. He didn’t understand what sick satisfaction Ouma could get from it.

“Well!” Momota burst out. Saihara guessed it was to prevent an escalation. “She’s way taller than you by a ‘few centimetres’! And ha! You just admitted to being scrawny and weak. We’ve been training a lot too and you probably sit in your room all day so I'm not surprised.”

Ouma gasped. “I’ll have you know that I can’t run an organisation of ten thousand members by doing push-ups like you guys. Unlike you lame-o’s, I have responsibilities.”

“Yeah right.” Momota snorted.

“But,” Ouma walked a couple steps closer, one hand on his hip, “I could totally beat Harumaki-chan in an arm wrestle. What makes her stronger than me? A little bit of training?”

“Get lost already!” Momota tried shooing the self-proclaimed ‘Supreme Leader’ away who stood firmly rooted in place.

“Whaaat? What’d I do? I’m just standing here innocently, asking innocent questions to dear, innocent Harumaki-chan!”

Said girl’s eyes rounded on him, vivid and blood-red. “Get out.”

“‘Out?’ We’re outside, Harumaki-chan, there’s no ‘out’ for me to go to.” He sighed as though he were severely disappointed. “You’re soooo strong but you’re not very smart, huh? Maybe all that muscle you have has squished your brain into the size of a peanut!” He gasped dramatically. “Maybe that’s why Gonta’s so dumb.”

Harukawa shot up.

Momota blurted protests and she strode towards Ouma, the boys face calm with a smile, and Saihara almost shrunk into himself as he felt as though the tension had rolled into a hot, fiery bubble ready to burst.

And yet, she strode past him towards the doors of the academy. It didn’t take long for her figure to fade and even in the distance, the slam of the doors were uncomfortably loud.

Even though she’d left, Saihara could almost feel her red hot anger fuzzing in the air, or maybe that was Momota's who turned to glare at Ouma.

“What the hell is your problem?” Momota sounded genuinely angry, an accusation in his tone. He hadn’t heard Momota like this in a while. The two purple-eyed Ultimate’s didn’t get along at the start of the year, clashing and fighting with words being flung at each other from both directions. Ouma calm but snarky and vicious, Momota angry but obvious and loud. Somehow, despite all that, they’d formed a solid sort of friendship. The two even hanging out on their own prompting by both parties and the ‘fighting’ now seemed to resemble a sort of harmless teasing and banter mainly from Ouma at an irritated Momota.

“My problem? You should ask what her problem was. Did you see the way she stormed off like that? Talk about weird!”

“Dude!” Momota burst out before stammering and fumbling over his words. “Wh- I- You can’t - do that.”

“Do what?”

He sighed. “You know what I mean. You ain’t gonna tell me why the two of you fight so much, but she didn’t even say anything that time.”

“Huuuh?” Ouma tilted his head. "She always says mean things to me, but as soon as I do, I’m the bully? Saihara-chan! Momota-chan’s taking that mean girl’s side when I’m the victim here!”

“Oh, c’mon.” Momota scratched his head with a helpless sigh. “You’re lucky as fuck she was probably too tired to punch your lights out.”

Ouma giggled. “She could probably do that, huh? What with how strong she is?”

Momota glared, Ouma smiled, and Saihara didn’t understand but felt the need to say something.

“Are you... uh... jealous of Harukawa-san?” Saihara didn’t believe he was, it wasn’t even a good theory, but he wasn’t sure what else to say.

Of course, Ouma burst out into laughter and Momota readily agreed with him’.

“He probably is. Not her fault she could kick your ass!”

“Actually,” his laughed died down and he smiled, “it is her fault.”

Momota picked up his jacket and bottle and stood up. “C’mon, Shuichi. Let’s go back to our room.”

“Um, could I meet you there?” Saihara asked. “I have to talk with Ouma-kun.”

Momota stared at him before he nodded in understanding. “Sure. Just don’t let the fucker harass you for too long.”

“How long is ‘too long’?” Ouma questioned. “How long will Momota-chan let me harass him?”

“I’m going to bed!” Momota called out with a wave of his hands from the distance.

Ouma skipped over to Saihara and plopped down on the grass beside him. “I hope you know,” he started, “this is the worst midnight rendezvous ever. I can’t believe you invited those two to our special meetings.”

Saihara sighed. “This isn’t a rendezvous or a secret meeting. We've never even done that before."

"We should start."

His eyes narrowed. "I just wanted to tell you to stop fighting with Harukawa-san. You don’t have to be friends, but aren’t you tired of it?”

Even though he didn’t agree with Akamatsu’s desire to force the two of them to be friends, it couldn’t hurt to ask for some civil ground. Something that would prevent the tense atmosphere that he’d created tonight.

“Do we have to talk about her? Can’t we talk about something else? Like how pretty the stars are! Wait, that’s something Momota-chan would want to talk about so that makes it lame. Hmm... let me think.”

“Ouma-kun,” Saihara insisted.

“That is my name.”

“Did you two have a fight?”

“What constitutes as a fight?”

Saihara felt a little caught off guard before answering uncertainly. “A disagreement.”

“A disagreement isn’t a fight.”

“But it is something that could cause one. Did you two have a disagreement?”

Ouma hummed and hummed for an obnoxiously long time. “Yep! She doesn’t like the evil doings of my organisation and kept preaching to be about ‘justice’ and ‘morals’! How could someone not like being evil? It’s unheard of!”

He wasn’t going to get a straight answer, he knew that much, but what he also knew was that Ouma wasn’t lying about the disagreement. That long hum of his really did feel as though Ouma were mulling it over seriously. The ‘evil organisation’ was a lie though. Ouma often used his 'organisation' in his lies to deflect from the truth, a fact Saihara had caught onto.

“Ok... I get it.” Saihara conceded. “Just please try. You don’t have to even get along, just be civil.”

“Awh! Is my beloved Saihara-chan worried about that mean, awful bully murdering me in my sleep?”

“What?! No! She’d never-“

“That’s so sweet!” Ouma threw his arms around Saihara causing the two to fall to the ground. Saihara desperately tried to pry the smaller boy off him with the hope he didn’t smell of sweat or have anymore on him. It was too embarrassing for his heart to handle and his face burned and eyes squeezed shut. The boy was too much trouble.

**Author's Note:**

> These two fuckers will be friends whether they like it or not. It's not as strong as the hatred they had for each other in the Killing Game, but they're still bastards with conflicting morals and shit and I'm tired of seeing them never get along.


End file.
